~ A Journal of Democracy and Public Affairs

Monthly Archives: July 2015

Microsoft decided to skip 9 and charge straight for 10. The company has managed to build some anticipation without telling us what to expect. If the up-and-down pattern holds, 10 ought to do better than 8. Whether 10 is better than 7 is another matter. 7 had all the basics, and it did all the basics well. No more blue screen of death. You could search your hard drive without waiting forever. The engineers in Redmond seemed to solve Windows’ more serious security problems. I expect 10 will preserve these good qualities, and make people feel like they have the latest thing around. People do like to have the latest. To be cool, you can’t wait too long to buy.

The map shows ISIS zones of attack (red), control (black), and support (brown). Iraqi Kurdistan is in green, and all the rest is tan. Click the image to see more maps at the Institute for the Study of War.

All we can say now is that the world war currently underway will get worse before it begins to dissipate. It has become steadily worse since we opened up the Afghan theater after 9/11, and not one sign points toward any easing of this fight.

If serial rape by America’s dad seems too serious a subject for jests, what about fears that your own American flag heralds a state that assassinates leaders and blows up buildings with people in them?